Angel Garcia Center Of Attention Ahead Of Thurman vs. Garcia
Angel Garcia Center Of Attention Ahead Of Thurman vs. Garcia
Angel Garcia, the hot-blooded outspoken father of Danny Garcia has taken center stage ahead of Thurman fight.
Mention the name Angel Garcia to any boxing fan and they are likely to shake their head and grab the thudding headache that usually comes along with his presence.
The press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 18 was no different.
While his son Danny Garcia and upcoming opponent Keith Thurman were expected to be the center of attention ahead of their much-anticipated fight scheduled to take place March 4 on CBS, it was Angel Garcia that brought his usual tirade of vulgar nonsense to the press conference.
As Thurman, a confident and brash fighter in his own right, was saying that Danny had signed to fight the wrong guy, Angel went into his all-too-common anger filled vitriolic diatribe. He referred to Thurman as "ponytail" and a "b*tch." From there, things broke down further as Angel yelled, "I'm the F****** champ" and wore his son's WBC world super lightweight championship.
To top it off, he fired racial slurs at Thurman multiple times before trying to incite a brawl on stage.
Boxing has always ridden a fine line between sports, bravado and street life, with few examples better than what the elder Garcia put forward at the press conference on January 17. In what should have been a historical moment as boxing prepares for just its second primetime CBS bout in the last 35 years, Angel stole the spotlight and the sport was forced to succumb to another overzealous performance by a seemingly cynical bystander.
This isn't the first time Angel has taken the spotlight from his son. Leading into his fight with Amir Khan, Angel said that Khan's DNA was "F*cked up" and that he had never seen "a Pakistani who can fight."
For the boxing media, this is nothing new. Angel comes off as a raving, scene-stealing, attention grabbing lunatic.
What is more worrisome might be the mainstream media's take.
Photo Credit: Ed Diller/DiBella Entertainment.
A headline on Yahoo Sports read "Danny Garcia's father continues to drag family name through mud with profane, racially charged rant." The Brookyln Daily Eagle referred to it as an "ugly series of racial slurs and expletives" and saying he "went a bit too far with his rhetoric." Sky Sports called it "an outspoken and unnecessary foul-mouthed tirade".
These are major publications that can influence the public perception of the sport in years to come.
There's no question that boxing needs all the help it can get to establish a better reputation, both because of the amount of shady characters slithering around the sport and the disappointment of many of the sport's biggest fights over the last two decades.
The much-talked about Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight in May of 2015 was a box office success but left fans infinitely disappointed. While it broke PPV numbers, it left many turned-off of a sport that has already struggled to gain notoriety in the past two decades. The sport continues to feel the backlash from fans who now expect to be disappointed.
That's why the announcement that Garcia vs. Thurman on CBS was expected to be monumental. This is an opportunity for casual sports fans to see that not all fights devolve into the disappointment of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
And while the headlines should have talked about boxing's return to mainstream television, they instead focused on a racist old man who can't get over himself. The sport was robbed of its spotlight on Wednesday.
Here's hoping the fight delivers.
By Shawn Smith/FloBoxing
The press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 18 was no different.
While his son Danny Garcia and upcoming opponent Keith Thurman were expected to be the center of attention ahead of their much-anticipated fight scheduled to take place March 4 on CBS, it was Angel Garcia that brought his usual tirade of vulgar nonsense to the press conference.
As Thurman, a confident and brash fighter in his own right, was saying that Danny had signed to fight the wrong guy, Angel went into his all-too-common anger filled vitriolic diatribe. He referred to Thurman as "ponytail" and a "b*tch." From there, things broke down further as Angel yelled, "I'm the F****** champ" and wore his son's WBC world super lightweight championship.
To top it off, he fired racial slurs at Thurman multiple times before trying to incite a brawl on stage.
Boxing has always ridden a fine line between sports, bravado and street life, with few examples better than what the elder Garcia put forward at the press conference on January 17. In what should have been a historical moment as boxing prepares for just its second primetime CBS bout in the last 35 years, Angel stole the spotlight and the sport was forced to succumb to another overzealous performance by a seemingly cynical bystander.
This isn't the first time Angel has taken the spotlight from his son. Leading into his fight with Amir Khan, Angel said that Khan's DNA was "F*cked up" and that he had never seen "a Pakistani who can fight."
For the boxing media, this is nothing new. Angel comes off as a raving, scene-stealing, attention grabbing lunatic.
What is more worrisome might be the mainstream media's take.
Photo Credit: Ed Diller/DiBella Entertainment.
A headline on Yahoo Sports read "Danny Garcia's father continues to drag family name through mud with profane, racially charged rant." The Brookyln Daily Eagle referred to it as an "ugly series of racial slurs and expletives" and saying he "went a bit too far with his rhetoric." Sky Sports called it "an outspoken and unnecessary foul-mouthed tirade".
These are major publications that can influence the public perception of the sport in years to come.
There's no question that boxing needs all the help it can get to establish a better reputation, both because of the amount of shady characters slithering around the sport and the disappointment of many of the sport's biggest fights over the last two decades.
The much-talked about Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight in May of 2015 was a box office success but left fans infinitely disappointed. While it broke PPV numbers, it left many turned-off of a sport that has already struggled to gain notoriety in the past two decades. The sport continues to feel the backlash from fans who now expect to be disappointed.
That's why the announcement that Garcia vs. Thurman on CBS was expected to be monumental. This is an opportunity for casual sports fans to see that not all fights devolve into the disappointment of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
And while the headlines should have talked about boxing's return to mainstream television, they instead focused on a racist old man who can't get over himself. The sport was robbed of its spotlight on Wednesday.
Here's hoping the fight delivers.
By Shawn Smith/FloBoxing